BlackBerry kills its relationship with T-Mobile

BlackBerry has decided not to renew its contract granting U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile a license to sell its smartphones, the company announced today.

While BlackBerry is the one that’s officially walking away, T-Mobile did quite a bit over the last several months to help this breakup happen. Back in September, the carrier yanked BlackBerry phones from its physical retail stores, and more recently it offered a promotion that let T-Mobile users trade in their BlackBerry for an iPhone. I’d imagine BlackBerry was not pleased with either of these actions.

“Regretfully, at this time, our strategies are not complementary and we must act in the best interest of our BlackBerry customers,” said BlackBerry CEO John Chen in a statement. “We hope to work with T-Mobile again in the future when our business strategies are aligned.”

BlackBerry said current T-Mobile customers that are still loyal to BlackBerry phones shouldn’t notice any change to their wireless service.

More information:

A global leader in mobile communications, BlackBerry® revolutionized the mobile industry when it was introduced in 1999. Today, BlackBerry aims to inspire the success of our millions of customers around the world by continuously pushi... read more »

As America’s Un-carrier, T-Mobile US, Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) is redefining the way consumers and businesses buy wireless services through leading product and service innovation. The company’s advanced nationwide 4G LTE network delivers ... read more »